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Haven't posted much on these forums but I'm always a lurker. Last year I made a post about my struggles while hunting on new private property in Western Maryland. Last year was rather unsuccessful, but this year, managed to kill a bird on the third day out.

The first weekend of our season, I didn't stay out long since it was blowing 10mph and gusting up to 20mph which wasn't fun when it was only in the 20s Fahrenheit temperature and the property was on the wrong side of the mountain for the wind. Saw a hen as we were pulling the decoys, but that was it.

Last weekend, there was some gobbling in the morning, but never saw a tom. I encountered the same pair of jakes three times though. The manfriend (who isn't much of a hunter, just along for the experience and to play role as cameraman) couldn't sit his butt still and got us busted when they came in to the decoys. Didn't scare them too bad though since they came back to us two more times that day. They can be seen in this video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiZi-6UHHZo

Yesterday, I heard not a single gobble in the morning. It was rather disheartening and I figure we weren't going to see much as I hadn't seen a decent tom this spring yet and everyone else I know who hunts locally haven't had any luck either. After sunrise, the boredom started to sink in and I pulled out my video camera and replayed the video of the jakes I saw last weekend. The time stamp on the video showed that they came in at 6:55 am. I glanced at my watch-- 7:05 am. I jokingly told my boyfriend to keep an eye out, if the jakes were on a schedule they'd be showing up at any minute and I was going to shoot one of them this time just so I could get turkey back in the freezer.

Not 5 minutes later, I saw a turkey at the bottom of the field we were in. And low and behold, his tail went up before my binoculars did. It was a tom, strutting and... facing away? I was a bit surprised that he paid no mind to my B-Mobile gobbler decoy or the three hen decoys I had in the field. But he stayed puffed up and strutting for quite the while facing downhill to a lower field on the property. There had to have been a hen down there. After about 10 minutes, one of the jakes from last week showed up (in the video, I called it a hen then realized it was a jake from last week). I thought maybe the jake might keep him away from us since we spooked him last week, but the tom paid no mind to him. After another couple minutes, he wandered off into the field below, and I figured that was the end of it. He had to been going after a hen. He was goner. The final moments before he walked off are seen in this video here --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wke4LUfmtbM

And then to my surprise, after maybe another 5 minutes, there he was again at the bottom of the field walking uphill in our direction. He kept stopping, unsure whether or not he wanted to come up. I have my gobbler decoy on a homemade (pretty ghetto) pulley system. When I started pulling the strings to make the decoy looking like he was walking and turning around, that really pissed the tom off. He came sprinting right up the hill. My boyfriend (the cameraman) couldn't see him until he was about 50 yards off. Once he came into view of the camera, well... watch the rest --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-46fRFeUiaA

My dad would always say "Tango down" after killing a bird and I picked up the habit. Damn shame the kill wasn't actually on video, I didn't realize the camera wasn't focused on him and there was so much adrenaline and excitement I didn't even think to say something or ask before I shot. Oh well, there's always next time :)

Video of me retrieving him --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NTCRr6mZkM

He was just short of 20 lbs, beard was 8.5 inches, one spur was 3/4 inch and the other was 7/8 inch. I've killed several turkeys over the years (8? 9? Oh gosh.... already losing count) but this was the first turkey I've ever killed that wasn't on the eastern shore of Maryland. It's also the first bird I've ever killed without any calling assistance/advice on where to sit/input from my dad, so it was a proud moment for me. I am glad to know that I learned from the best and am able to use what I've learned to finally end up successful. Of course, I'm not sure what left me feeling happier, finally killing a turkey up here in the mountains or the look on my dad's face when I showed him the video of the bird coming in. Such a great day, makes all the other unsuccessful days worth it. I ended up caping him (I've never tried to make a turkey cape before, so hopefully it looks good when it's done drying out) and haven't decided what fun things to make with his feet yet. But I do know one thing, I'm grilling some turkey legs this week :cool:

And pictures of course!
Beard
Spurs
Turkey